Doctors yesterday warned that the weak, old and ill would be hit by Tory health plans.

Leader David Cameron this week unveiled proposals to fine hospitals whose patients get MRSA or other infections on the wards.

But the British Medical Association said it would deter hospitals from treating the most vulnerable patients. GP committee chairman Dr Laurence Buckman said: "Hospitals won't admit people who look like they might get a complication.

"That means people who are chronic sick, people who have cancer.

How are you going to manage people on chemotherapy, who often get infections during the course of their treatment?"